Documentary accusing Gerry Adams of IRA murder broadcast

An interview with an IRA commander who alleges Gerry Adams was involved in the murder of a west Belfast woman has been broadcast for the first time.

Jean McConville disappeared from her home in 1972. It later emerged that the mother of ten was killed and secretly buried in Co.Louth by the IRA.

An audio recording of an interview with Brendan Hughes, a former IRA commander was aired as part of the documentary “Voices from the Grave” which was broadcast on RTE television on Tuesday night.

During the audio interview Brendan Hughes alleges that Gerry Adams was a member of the IRA and played a key role in the murder of Jean McConville. Hughes' account of his life in the IRA has already been published in a book “Voices from the Grave”.

On the taped recording Hughes claims that the IRA found a British army radio transmitter in Mrs McConville's home on two separate occasions. He added that she ignored a warning and that led to her murder which he later regretted.

During he recorded interview he said "A special squad was brought into the operation then, called The Unknowns.

"Anyone that needed to be taken away, they normally done (sic) it. I had no control over this squad. Gerry had control of this particular squad."

Gerry Adams has strongly refuted the allegations made against him and is adamant he had no involvement with the Belfast woman’s death.

The McConville family denied that she was an informer.

Brendan Hughes died in February 2008. The 59-year-old lead the first ever republican hunger strike in 1980 at the Maze prison which lasted 53 days. In the years before his death he became critical of Sinn Fein and the route it was taking.

In a statement released after Hughes’ death the Sinn Fein president said: "Brendan will be missed, not least by his family, but also by the wider republican family with whom he dedicated such a large part of his life in furtherance of Irish republican goals".